In the work cycle “cantica christinae I-III”, Klaus Lang has turned to poems by Christina Rossetti (1830 – 1894), a poet who belonged to the Pre-Raphaelites.
This was a group of visual artists in England who came together in 1848 as a kind of brotherhood. This group of artists was united not only by criticism of the academic canon that existed at the time, but also by the desire to redefine the relationship between art and craft as one of equality and non-hierarchy.
With the Pre-Raphaelites, Klaus Lang not only shares this view, but also a preference for the art of the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, epochs that were extraordinarily fruitful for all the arts. “I therefore found it fascinating to tie in with this tradition in a quasi-dual way: ‘cantica christinae’ sets ‘Pre-Raphaelite’ poems from the 19th century to music, using the form of the polyphonic chanson and contrapuntal techniques developed in the 15th and 16th centuries, which nevertheless appear in “cantica christinae” in a present-day tonal form.” (Klaus Lang)
Klaus Lang: New work for the cycle cantica christinae., 2023, premiere
Klaus Lang: various works from the cycle cantica christinae., since 2020
Various works by Heinrich Isaac and Giovanni Buonavertura Viviani
Rossetti Players:
Barbara Konrad, violin
Anne Freitag, flute
Elīna Viļuma-Helling, soprano
Klaus Lang, organ
Admission from 19:45